gc-forever - Gamecube/Wii Forums

1.6mm is a standard thickness, change the thickness and the aspect ratio changes a good overview is stated below

http://www.polarinstruments.com/support ... AP521.html

I ordered an FT245RL from a local low volume seller. I soldered it onto a board today and I now have a working USB Gecko.

I am using USB LOAD by emukidid. I thought I read somewhere it is possible to make the uploaded application jump back to USB LOAD. How do would I add that into my application?

Hmm I don't think that's possible, it would need some refactoring to allow using USB load as a library, and without interrupts it's kind of a pain to do nicely unless you trigger it manually. If you have an SD gecko in the other slot though you can use the sidestep/ssaram code from gecko load/swiss to reload the dol from your SD card.

There isn't support for that in USB Load but it would be easy enough to add, just shove USB-Load somewhere and then make some code to return to that. (top of ARAM, reduce the sidestep code to not touch it).

You could do it with the original USB gecko by storing it in the onboard flash.

Yeah but he has a clone

Alright thanks for the suggestions. I will try look into adding the functionality myself first. Should be very educational, as I am relatively new to low level C stuff. Then again, I might not have that big of a need for it, if the programming of my own application goes smooth enough.. If I have any questions I will ask them in the USB Load thread.

Just wondering, how do you guys in general upload new code to your Cube? I currently load USB Load through Swiss from my SDGecko. Whenever my own application exits, the Cube is rebooted and I need to reload Swiss again and then reload USB Load. However, I need to first replug my SD Gecko, because else Swiss does not recognize it. This makes reuploading code a relatively long process. Just wondering how you guys do it, as apparently jumping back to USB Load (and I believe the USB Gecko has a similar application) is not that common?

I have an SD gecko in slot A with USB load as my boot.dol. Swiss doesn't detect the card in slot B after a reboot but in slot A it seems to work just fine. It's just annoying to wait for the cube to boot up, but still better than screwing around with SD cards.

Just put my first one together and programmed it, yet to test it out or file down the edges

Looks a lot nicer than mine (I still need a proper soldering iron).

I never showed mine:



The mark on the CPLD is to indicate that it works, because it does not have a fake FT245RL. I went with a smaller voltage regulator, so there would be place for the JTAG connector. By shorting R2 you can choose to use the 3.3 V from the GameCube EXI connector. I swapped the 100 nf caps for 0402 size, since that is what I use and have plenty of lying around.

I think I will test one more board using a real FT245RL and if that works, I guess I can put the design on github or something. With the fake FT245RLs some had trouble setting up a USB connection, so it could be that something is wrong with my design there. The board with the real FT245RL worked luckily.

The FT245RL has a built in 3.3V regulator, but unfortunately it seems to be just too light to power the CPLD.

I believe the I programmed the LED to flash when there is communication with the GC, but I already forgot, I have not really used it a lot yet. The raphnet N64 to GC adapter can now be updated through the N64's controller port with new firmware. I was planning on creating something similar for a GC to N64 adapter of mine. I was at the point that I could send my own data over the controller port. Right now I am too busy graduating and I want to do some other stuff.

Your soldering looks really good emu_kidid!

Thanks, I like the JTAG location on yours, less troublesome without a jig of sorts

A few questions, can 10uf Ceramic caps be used in place of the tantalum ones? Second how is the cpld being programmed? is it through a jtag programmer or is it through the FTDI chip once that's been programmed?


meneerbeer do you have a link to your github files for your design and code for the cpld?

Thanks.

The regulator requires tantalum caps, you could try ceramics but I can't guarantee that it will work.
Programming the CPLD is done through JTAG (there are pads on the bottom of my board), pretty much any device able to bitbang a few IO pins should be able to program it (I used a raspberry pi with this https://github.com/Guzunty/Pi/tree/master/src/gz_load), you could also use any USB AVR chip with https://github.com/ClusterM/clujtag-avr. Or a bus pirate. Or an old pc with a parallel port.

So that USB AVR Chip JTAG program is flashed onto the AVR chip? I got one of those cheap USBasp with an atmega8 on it wondering if that can be used?

Also what can be used that actually works in WINDOWS to use those "makefile" files? I've tried so many things and I can never get those things to compile, I know on Linux it works fine but not on Windows.

Thanks for the Help.

I will see if I can find some time to upload my files to github.

Note that the parts mine uses are slightly different. I swapped the voltage regulator for a smaller one.

You cannot use USBasp. I myself have a Xilinx programmer, but it is rather expensive. The advantage is that it works directly with Xilinx's software. I think if you use UrJTAG you can pretty much use any JTAG programmer. For that you first need to create a .svf file with Xilinx (I think I can do this for you, but I have never done it myself).

The Altera JTAG programmer is rather cheap, so that might be an interesting alternative. You do need the .svf file.

@Streetwalker: is linking to your Github for credits okay with you?

Sounds fine to me but don't forget to credit the original author.

meneerbeer wrote:I will see if I can find some time to upload my files to github.

Note that the parts mine uses are slightly different. I swapped the voltage regulator for a smaller one.

You cannot use USBasp. I myself have a Xilinx programmer, but it is rather expensive. The advantage is that it works directly with Xilinx's software. I think if you use UrJTAG you can pretty much use any JTAG programmer. For that you first need to create a .svf file with Xilinx (I think I can do this for you, but I have never done it myself).

The Altera JTAG programmer is rather cheap, so that might be an interesting alternative. You do need the .svf file.

@Streetwalker: is linking to your Github for credits okay with you?

I actually have an Altera USB Blaster so I'll try that.

Do you guys know of a good cheap and reliable source for the components? Mainly the CPLD and the FT245RL, the FT245RL is almost double the price of the CPLD on just about every site I find.

wasnt there some issue with FTDI drivers bricking chips?

Helder wrote: I actually have an Altera USB Blaster so I'll try that.

Do you guys know of a good cheap and reliable source for the components? Mainly the CPLD and the FT245RL, the FT245RL is almost double the price of the CPLD on just about every site I find.

I wouldn't risk ordering the FT245RL from China. Mine didn't work (see earlier posts in the thread). These chips are known to have been copied afaik, whereas a lot of other chips are only rumored to have been. I ordered mine from a local, small shop for electronics. It was around 10$. Farnell has it for a bit less.

megalomaniac wrote:wasnt there some issue with FTDI drivers bricking chips?

Yes, a driver update detected and bricked fake chips.

That update was pulled a while ago though. Still a dick move from ftdi, I'm pretty reluctant to use their chips anymore for a new design.

FTDI played that twice now so far. Now the driver on Windows will burn bogus data on your fake chip - funny stuff.

@Topic: That clone looks fancy, but I'm not sure if I can solder it as clean as pictured above.

I am trying to make myself an USB Gecko using your open source clone. I assembled it and I flashed first the FT245R and then the CPLD. I think both flashing were successful, but I can't seem to get it to work. I tried to use it both on Mac and on Windows. On Mac I see it as "/dev/tty.usbserial-GECKUSB0", but on windows it doesn't show up as a COM (I tried both d2xx and vcp drivers), it shows up as "USB Serial Converter".
When I use it on Mac it gets stuck at "sending data", until I unplug it from my USB port. Do you have any idea of what could be the issue? I wonder if my FT245R is somehow broken or badly flashed. I really don't know.
Also the parts should all be genuine since I got them from TME, which should be legit.
Any idea on what could be the issue? Thank you

The FIFO will get stuck if there is no software on the GC trying to read it. What are you testing with?

Streetwalker wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 31, 2018 9:43 am

The FIFO will get stuck if there is no software on the GC trying to read it. What are you testing with?

I had the HBC running. I tried plugging the usb gecko in both memory card slots